First Amendment
| Bill would have tried to protect speakers from getting booed off campus

by Bonnie Pritchett Posted 7/04/17, 08:10 am

Calling additional free speech legislation “unnecessary” and “burdensome,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed a bipartisan bill designed to protect that liberty on the state’s university campuses. House Bill 269, modeled after legislation in other states, passed both Louisiana chambers with only two dissenting votes. It comes in response to nationwide protests by university students against speakers they deem offensive, many of whom are conservative. Some of those protests have turned violent.

by Bonnie Pritchett Posted 6/27/17, 11:00 am

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who is accused of discriminating against a gay couple when he declined to create their wedding cake in 2012. Phillips’ case could resolve the tension between an “exceedingly harsh view of so-called equity laws and an extremely limited view of free speech and the free exercise of religion” said Mike Farris, Alliance Defending Freedom president.

Religious Liberty
| New law allows faith-based groups to adhere to Biblical family standards

by Bonnie Pritchett Posted 6/20/17, 10:57 am

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation June 15 that protects faith-based foster and adoption care agencies from lawsuits challenging their Biblically based operational standards. Facing the threat of ruinous lawsuits for refusing to work with gay couples or provide abortions for children in their care, agency directors said they would have been forced to close their doors without the protections.

Features
| Protecting faith-based adoption and foster care

Katie Gaultney & Bonnie Pritchett | 6/14/17, 10:07 pm

Faith-based child welfare agencies have mounted legal efforts to gain religious protections, as LGBT advocates cry discrimination. Meanwhile, thousands of children needing homes are left in the crosshairs. A new Texas bill—similar to laws passed in Virginia, Michigan, the Dakotas, and, just recently, Alabama—may ensure that faith-based agencies remain open to serve and recruit more foster and adoptive families. Will other states follow?

Bonnie Pritchett | 5/30/17, 11:56 am

A Minnesota federal judge heard arguments Friday in a lawsuit brought by the owners of a film company who want to tell stories of marriage from an exclusively Biblical perspective. The state’s non-discrimination law requires wedding industry businesses to serve all prospective clients, including same-sex couples, or face stiff fines and even imprisonment.

Bonnie Pritchett | 5/23/17, 09:40 am

“This case is an ominous sign.”

That’s the opening salvo of Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last June not to hear the case of Stormans v. Wiesman. The owners of a Washington pharmacy sought an exemption from the state’s mandate that all pharmacies dispense abortion-inducing drugs. Citing First Amendment protections, the Storman family objected on religious grounds. State and appellate courts disagreed.

Religious Liberty
| Judges rule Hands On Originals did not discriminate when it refused to make T-shirts for a gay pride festival

Bonnie Pritchett | 5/15/17, 10:18 am

The owner of Hands On Originals, a Lexington, Ky., print shop, did not violate a local nondiscrimination ordinance when he refused to create T-shirts for an annual gay pride festival, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

The 2-1 decision is the second to uphold Blaine Adamson’s right to engage in “viewpoint or message censorship.” A local gay and lesbian advocacy organization asked Adamson to create T-shirts promoting the organization’s 2012 Pride Festival. Adamson declined, saying he could not promote that message as a Christian.

Religious Liberty
| Hopeful Trump supporters left the White House with fewer conscience protections than they had hoped for

Bonnie Pritchett | 5/04/17, 05:31 pm

President Donald Trump signed an executive order today calling on federal agencies to operate with respect to Americans’ freedoms of speech and religion. In a White House Rose Garden ceremony, Trump combined the traditional signing of the National Day of Prayer proclamation with the executive order.

Religious Liberty
| A win at the continent’s top human rights court could benefit all Christian healthcare providers

Bonnie Pritchett | 4/18/17, 02:25 pm

A Swedish midwife denied a job because of her pro-life views is taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights. On three separate occasions, potential employers refused to hire Ellinor Grimmark, and last week the Swedish Labor Court upheld those decisions, declining to consider international conscience protections, her attorneys claim.